This is an archive article published on June 29, 2020
Pune: PCMC does away with 5-day hospital quarantine, starts immediate home isolation for patients with mild symptoms
"We have decided to home isolate patients who have mild symptoms or those who are asymptomatic with immediate effect," Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express on Sunday.
“There are more such requests coming forward. Henceforth, such patients need not stay in hospital but will be home isolated immediately,” the PCMC chief said. (Representational)
A week after it started home isolation for patients with mild symptoms or those who are asymptomatic, the PCMC has decided to change the norms of home isolation. From five days’ hospital quarantine, it has now decided to start home isolation of such patients from day one.
“We have decided to home isolate patients who have mild symptoms or those who are asymptomatic with immediate effect,” Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express on Sunday.
So far, the PCMC has home isolated two such patients. “There are more such requests coming forward. Henceforth, such patients need not stay in hospital but will be home isolated immediately,” the PCMC chief said, adding that the new norm will take effect from Monday.
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While allowing home quarantine, Hardikar said it is important that such patients have a separate toilet and bathroom facility. “Otherwise, we cannot home isolate them. And therefore, the home isolation of those living in chawls and slums had been ruled out earlier and will remain so,” he said. As for co-morbid patients, Hardikar said their home isolation for now is ruled out. In contrast, the PMC has allowed home quarantine for co-morbid patients as well as those with mild symptoms or those who are asymptomatic.
In his Facebook Live event, the PCMC chief said, “Home isolation of patients with mild symptoms is a safe option. ICMR has given such directives. Such people should stay at home in a separate room and take vitamins and boost their immunity with advice from our doctors.” Urging residential societies not to put hurdles in home isolation process, Hardikar said, “PCMC will monitor such patients. Residential societies should make all bid to help such patients and not create hurdles for them or oppose home isolation process.”
Stating that 80 per cent patients have no symptoms, Hardikar said, “Such patients do not need hospital bed space. They should stay at home for 17 days and after that there is no need for conducting test. Such patients should wear masks, wash their own plates after meal, drink warm water and wash used clothes with warm water. If they develop symptoms like fever, cough and sore throat, they should seek help from our doctors. PCMC medical team will monitor such patients and send ambulance if required.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More